


catalyst

by down



Category: Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 09:10:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/down/pseuds/down
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tokyo hasn't changed, but Hikaru has.</p>
            </blockquote>





	catalyst

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another of the 12 days of christmas self-challenge flash-fics! Hikaru, and the realisation that Tokyo doesn't... fit, anymore.

oOo

Hikaru dreamed of fire. 

She dreamed of brightness, of dead matter waking in glorious combustion to heat and light and life-giving energy. She dreamed of melting rock, of sparks in the sky, of ash and smoke and cooling new ground. There was a creature in the flames, made of them, and she stood before him and was girdled by those flames and melted into him and the rock and the earth; the world shook with her surprise and awe, and she was the spark, the change, the moment of reaction and the catalyst of life in all things-

Hikaru woke up, and the world was dark and still. 

It wasn’t quiet. Hikari was breathing steadily in sleep, and the insects were loud in the garden; she lay listening to the steady noise for a long moment before she got up, left the futon, and wandered outside. 

The heat of the day lingered in the air still, comfortable on her skin, and she sat down on the edge of the veranda. It wasn’t so long since she had gone to bed; there were still lights glimmering in the stone lanterns, lit by one of her brothers earlier – Masaru-nii-sama, she guessed, who liked to lounge about watching the flames brighten as it got darker while he finished his college reading. But he wasn’t here now, the gardens empty except for her and the bugs. 

The flickering lights drew her attention, pressing at her awareness. She couldn’t sense them, the way she could on Cephiro, but there was still something… 

She pulled her knees up, resting her chin on them and breathing carefully, steadily. She had known this garden her whole life; it was unchanged. _Tokyo_ was unchanged. But somehow there was something new and strange about everything, weighing softly on her, catching her attention and distracting her. At first, she had thought it was only the difference between here and Cephiro which made everything new again… but that wasn’t all. 

Cephiro had changed them. 

Not just Cephiro, but… the magic Clef woke in them had altered them, somehow, on a level so deep that it resonated here as well. She didn’t think that had been on purpose – if he had known it would change them so much, he would have told them. (He would still have done it. They needed that magic, for Emeraude’s sake. But she believed he would have told them.) She wasn’t a mage on Earth – she had checked, and fire would not dance for her here. But she was different, and… 

It was as if the world knew it, and was pressing back against her. It was _uncomfortable_. 

Or perhaps she was imagining that, after the sensation of being Pillar; of the whole of the land singing in her heart, everything a part of her, and herself so wholly aware of the life burning in everything. She _knew_ Cephiro, and the nature of that land, and maybe that was why Earth now seemed to be… lacking, somehow. 

She still loved Earth, loved Tokyo and her friends and her family… but she knew already that it would not be enough, not for any of the three of them. They were part of Cephiro now, and Cephiro was a part of them, and they would be drawn back again and again until they stayed. 

Well. 

Hikaru tilted her head back, to watch the stars; only the very brightest were visible from Tokyo, even from her quieter neighbourhood. The high cold lights glimmered as she watched them; not eternal, but long-lived. 

They would need a plan, then, to make this transition work. They had time enough yet, and she knew that the three of them would find a way. For now, she had practice early tomorrow morning, and the memory of her dreams had settled back into a quiet warmth in her heart. Hikaru slipped down into the garden and blew out the candles, before heading back inside. 

This time she slept easily, and nothing woke her. 

oOo


End file.
